Amsterdam's New City Government Ignores Startups While the City Slips Down Global Tech Rankings
Amsterdam, Friday, 5 June 2026.
Amsterdam has dropped to 7th in Europe and 28th globally as a tech hub, yet its new coalition agreement — presented on June 3, 2026 — does not mention the word ‘startup’ once. With nearly half of Amsterdam’s startups now planning to leave by 2028, the political silence on innovation could not come at a worse time.
A Coalition Agreement That Does Not Speak the Language of Tech
On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, coalition negotiators Zita Pels of PRO Amsterdam and Melanie van der Horst of D66 unveiled a 70-page governing document titled ‘Jouw stad is mijn stad. Ons Amsterdam’ — ‘Your city is my city. Our Amsterdam’ — at the OBA library in Zuidoost [1]. The agreement, which will guide Amsterdam’s city government from 2026 to 2030, devotes considerable attention to affordable housing, teacher recruitment, and free public transport for children under 17 [2]. What it conspicuously omits, however, has sent shockwaves through the city’s innovation community: the word ‘startup’ does not appear in the document even once [2].
The Rankings Tell a Stark Story
The political silence on innovation arrives against a backdrop of accelerating decline in Amsterdam’s standing as a global technology center. According to data published by Dealroom.co during the week of May 25–31, 2026 — just days before the coalition agreement was unveiled — Amsterdam has fallen from the European top three to 7th place on the continent, and sits at 28th globally out of 325 major tech cities [1][4]. The platform has tracked these rankings since 2011 [4]. Rival cities including Stockholm, Berlin, and Cambridge have all overtaken the Dutch capital [4].
Startups Are Already Voting With Their Feet
The concern is not merely about rankings — it is about an active exodus of companies and talent. Half-yearly surveys conducted by the Dutch Startup Association reveal a sharp deterioration in sentiment: in 2025, one-third of Amsterdam-based startups said they expected to leave the Netherlands within two years [4]. By 2026, that figure has risen to nearly half, with most citing an unfavorable investment climate for early-stage companies compared to neighboring countries [4]. ‘How many times do we have to shout that we need to wake up?’ asked DSA’s Lucien Burm [4]. His frustration is rooted in specifics: Dutch tax rules currently require employee stock options to be taxed before they are exercised — a structural disadvantage when competing for talent against London, Berlin, or Paris [4].
What the Coalition Did Choose to Prioritize
The coalition agreement between PRO Amsterdam and D66 — formed after PRO won 17 council seats and D66 secured 8 of the 45 available seats in the March 2026 municipal elections — proposes €344 million in budget cuts against €292 million in new investments [1]. Its stated priorities are clear: affordable housing, safety, and free public transport for the under-17s [1][2]. On the housing front, the city plans to actively inspect 20,000 dwellings for illegal rent levels, maintain a pipeline of 68,000 planned new homes, and develop a 15-year construction agenda running from 2026 to 2041 [8]. To fund its ambitions, the coalition intends to raise the tourist tax from its current rate of 12.5% to 16% in 2027, and then incrementally to 20% by 2031 [1][8]. A hiring freeze for municipal positions at salary scale 10 and above will take effect from July 1, 2026, with the goal of eliminating 2,500 city jobs and contracted positions by 2028 [8].
Internationals and the Innovation Community Left Looking for Answers
Beyond the startup community, Amsterdam’s large international population — which collectively represents approximately 38% of the city’s residents [1] — finds little concrete support in the new agreement. Juliet Broersen of Volt argued that ‘international students, young Europeans and internationals are not just temporary guests or an economic asset, but residents, neighbours and part of our city. If this coalition truly wants Amsterdam to be a city for everyone, it must also make sure housing, participation and city services work for people who do not yet speak Dutch’ [1]. The charity Serve the City, which relies on internationals for 70% of its volunteer base, echoed this concern through its founder Brigitte Vonck: ‘What does not really come across strongly in the coalition agreement is the sense of community: doing things together, and making sure Amsterdam is a city for everyone’ [2].
What Comes Next — and What Is at Stake
The immediate next milestone is June 10, 2026, when Amsterdam’s city council is scheduled to formally debate the coalition agreement and install nine new aldermen [1]. From that point, the governing program will be in effect, shaping zoning decisions, public spending, and the regulatory environment for businesses across the city for the next four years. For Amsterdam’s tech and startup community, the stakes could not be higher. With nearly half of startups already planning to leave by 2028 [4], the absence of meaningful innovation policy in the coalition document is not a neutral omission — it is a signal. Whether the incoming administration chooses to address the gap before businesses make irreversible relocation decisions may well determine whether Amsterdam’s $10 billion startup legacy remains a foundation for future growth, or a high-water mark for a city that lost its footing at a critical moment in the global competition for tech talent and capital [1][2][4].